Officials would bring foreign visitors to meet her, as living refutation of Uighurs’ complaints that Chinese policies relegated them to second-class citizenship.

That’s how the Christian Science Monitor described the earlier life of Rebiya Kadeer, in summer 2009. Then, the article moved on to her later years in East Turkestan and China – her fall from grace, her arrest, and her term in jail during the early 2000s.

Her story came to my mind when Mesut Özil, a player for Arsenal and a German citizen, resigned from Germany’s “national team” on Sunday, i. e. from the German Football Association’s (DFB) top team that vies for the FIFA World Cups or at the UEFA European Championships every four years respectively.

Özil, approaching his 30th birthday this year, has been a star in Germany for most of the past decade. There have also been derogatory remarks about him in the past, and a right-wing politician called Özil a “plastic German” live on television, referring to the synthetic material covering German identity cards. But Özil’s career developed unobstructedly. So did his public image.

Özil was born as a Turkish citizen, in the German town of Gelsenkirchen. He took German citizenship in 2007, and if the few statements he publicly made are something to go by, he probably considers himself a citizen of the world.

Kadeer was reportedly on her way to meet a politician in Urumqi when she was arrested, in 1999. The politician was a bad guy – an American.

Obviously, there are differences between the American bad guy and the Turkish bad guy. The American politician was a bad guy because he cared about human rights. The Turkish president is a bad guy because he gives a damn on human rights, and on the rule of law.

But this is where Özil’s fall from grace began. It’s in the nature of the sport that he was known way beyond the world of soccer, Germany’s number one sport. He was sold – by the DFB and by German politics – as a shining example of “integration”, the incorporation of migrants into German society.

That was weird, given that he had lived in Germany from day one of his life anyway, but propaganda doesn’t have to be accurate. It is meant to tie the nation together, rather than to inform it. And for about a decade, the message seemed to work for the cause of social cohesion.

Soccer doesn’t breed the most civil interaction, certainly not among the fan base. And it isn’t the best ground for decent standards on the level of business operations either. To demand that people who make millions from playing soccer should be “role models” is an excessive demand – no matter if they are made on foreigners or compatriots, migrants or Mayflower descendants (or whatever their German equivalents may be). If things go well, you won’t get into public-relations trouble. But it can easily happen. It is currently happening to the DFB president, Reinhard Grindel, too, because much of Özil’s criticism in his letter of resignation was targeted at him, and while the press is critical of the accusations in Özil’s letter of resignation, the DFB is criticized mercilessly – for “racism” by some, for chaotic management by many.

Özil’s preparedness to meet Turkish president Erdogan for a photo op was read as an endorsement for the campaigning politician by many in Germany, and probably by some Turkish voters, too. His explanation that it wasn’t meant to be an endorsement, but just a show of respect for the presidential office, didn’t convince the German public.

Socializing with unpleasant political leaders, and making yourself useful (or making them useful to yourself, or both) is an important element of “professional sports” – if you can’t put up with it, change it, or stop being a fan. But don’t beam your anger on a few guys in particular.

Is there a moral to this story? Maybe it is a lesson about the dangers of propaganda. For most of the past decade, Özil fitted well into collective German ego-boosting. Now, sudden new fans use his image to agitate their audiences.

Don’t hold your breath for role models in sports. Once in a while, there may be some – maybe Muhammad Ali became one, in the course of many decades. But usually, some of a person’s action (or inaction) may be admirable, some other may be detestable.

Hundreds of sports officials, and thousands of cadres, have proven by their behavior that commercial sports isn’t doing embroidery.

On Tuesday this week, Donald Trump announced a plan that would provide US farmers with $12 billion, to lighten the effects of tarriffs imposed by China and the European Union, in retaliation to earlier US tarriff hikes. Politicoquoted US agriculture secretary Sonny Perdueas saying that the $12 bn would be a match for “roughly $11 billion in negative effects that USDA has calculated agricultural producers have suffered as a result of “illegal” retaliatory tariffs imposed by China, Canada, Mexico, the European Union and other major economies.” Apart from direct payments to farmers, a purchasing program and support for farmers looking out for new markets are reportedly part of the plan.

Guanchazhe , a paper from Shanghai, posted a report on its website today, recalling that

In spite of opposing voices at home, the Trump administration added 25 percent to import tarriffs on Chinese goods at a value of $34 billion*), from the beginning of July. In reaction, China imposed 25 percent of import tarriffs on the same scale of American products, including American agricultural products.

Trump appears to have recognized that it is exactly the trade clash provoked by him that has shocked the farmers. According to earlier Guanchazhe Network reports, on July 24 local time, the American agriculture secretary announced the biggest emergency assistance plan for farmers since 1998, with a total of $12 billion, to help the farmers to avoid losses.

Guanchazhe then quotes Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang as saying that China was a major buyer of American agricultural goods: “For many years, Sino-American agricultural cooperation has continuously broadened, it has deepened by the day, with honest mutual benefits. One should say that it is mutually beneficial and mutually profitable” (多年来，中美农业合作不断扩大，日益深化，给双方带来了实实在在的利益，应该说是互利共赢的). Currently however, it was America that was “adopting unilateralism and trade protectionism, going back on its words (言而无信) and contradicting itself (出尔反尔), insistently provoking a trade war against China.” Geng is also quoted as saying that the American farmers were “paying the bill for the American government’s bullying.”

Trump provokes a trade clash with one hand, the article says, and

as other countries are forced to strike back, he now wants to placate the farmers with an emergency assistance plan, plus peddling words on social media about how he likes and values the farmers and about attacking China – will American farmers buy this?

现在想通过紧急援助来安抚美国农民，另一边又在社交媒体上兜售对农民“爱与尊重”的说辞，攻击中国，美国农民会买账吗？

The article quotes two farmers by name, both of them with rather balances statements that emphasize the need for long-term solutions and maintaining their market positions, but without criticizing Trump.

All the same, the two measured statements are lumped together with Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse‘s criticism that the assistance program was about “gold crutches”. The article then moves on to July 25:

According to Reuters, on July 25 local time, Trump met Congress members from agricultural states to discuss trade issues. House agricultural committee chairman Mike Conaway thanked the government for the assistant measures, and lauded the agreement Trump had reached with visiting EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker earlier that day to eliminate trade barriers.

2. Baidu/Baike online encyclopedia

Dong Fangyi, originally named Guo Yi, non-governmental strategist, Tuozhan Cultural Association’s president, and actually in control of FGC Group. Main writing is “Hero Master and Expansion”. Born in He County, Anhui Province, in 1962. He County is situated in central Anhui Province, the place where Xiang Yu of Western Chu committed suicide.

His father is/was a Resist US Help North Korea soldier. After demobilization, he stayed in the Great Northern Wilderness. Growing up with his father in Raohe County, Heilongjiang Province (the county where Zhenbao Island is located), the land reclamation of the Great Northern Wilderness, the military and forest environment, military people, and the iron will of demobilized servicemen had a profound influence on him. Under the influence of his parents’ generation, he acquired a belief that loved the party and the country.

In 1982, after graduating from the Changchun Institute of Geology, he went to northern Shaanxi to work there for many years. He has deep feelings for the motherland’s north-western region. Since childhood, Dong Fangyi has loved learning, diligently thinking, he has become good at strategy, continuously learned the Mao Zedong Thought, and studied Chinese history, especially the Spring and Autumn and Warring States history, the history of the CCP, as well as the Resist US Help North Korea and the Resist US Help Vietnam records. His process of thinking has been influenced by Mao Zedong Thought and China’s outstanding traditional culture, notably legalism.

If it hasn’t come to the reader’s mind so far that the personality himself, or his fans, have built a encyclopedic monument here, this is where the idea occurs to this blogger.

Expansionism is a wonderful integration of Marxism-Lenism, Mao Zedong Thought and Chinese culture. An expanding spirit is a powerful spiritual force for rescue in a chaotic international world, making people re-establish three beliefs: in the goal of Great Unity, trust in our central authorities, and trust in our country. Regaining confidence in the future.

To disseminate and to implement the China expansion cultural thought, Dong Fangyi has, since 80s of the past century, established the Future Group [FGC Group, see first para of this Baidu translation] and the Dong Fangyi Tuozhan Cultural Company (东方毅拓展文化公司), to broadly enforce talented people in society, and to lead them to strive untiringly for the cause of Chinese expansion!

Expanding culture is a forceful undertaking for the powerful Chinese traditional culture, with power philosophy as its foundation, with the core values of breaking new ground, development, forging ahead, and going on the offensive. Its spirit is about four words: power, expansion. Confidence in expansion, belief, conviction that promotes martial spirits, sublime literature, and peace.

Dong Fangyi believes that the masses create history by the medium of heroes. Heroes are extremely important, with the hero master being the heroes’ hero. The hero master must master the masses and military force. The hero master is the king of military force, financial resources and of intellect. He believes only in power. Everything of the hero master is achieved in huge battles. Big war is comprehensive and taking place in many fields, including political, military, economic, cultural, psychological and other fields. The hero master formulates his grand strategy from the perspective of big war, the core principle of which is national great security, the nation’s great development, and the world’s great integration.

Expansionism emphasizes human identity and is [a/the] main impartial [or objective] interactive philosophy. Subjectivity leads objectivity, the process of practice transforms the objective world, and also the subjective world. What expanding culture strives for is the huge transformational force of theory versus reality. These theories are symbolized in Dong Fangyi’s expansion thoughts by “Hero Master and Expansion”. In this book, there are thorough, detailed and comprehensive elaborations, and since its publication, “Hero Master and Expansion” has received broad support from the circles of the party, government, military, and academics.

When Donald Trumpspeaks without a script, it sounds like BBC Radio 4 entertainment – the I’m-sorry-I-haven’t-a-clue style, where people are supposed to talk without repeating a single word, or without mentioning a specific world. Something like …

Host:

Mr. President, you are supposed to speak about clocks for sixty seconds, and you must use the word “clock” only once.

Trump:

I don’t mind clocks. I like those things. I actually love them. We have a great relationship. The only problem with clocks is …